FORT MILL TOWNSHIP -- The S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control, which regulates whether hospitals and other healthcare providers can make major expansions or build new facilities, is rethinking how it makes those decisions.

Deciding who gets to build a hospital or add more beds to an existing medical center is based on the State Health Plan. Under that plan, the Fort Mill area has a need for a 64-bed hospital based on population growth, and the plan designates those beds to Piedmont Medical Center.

But Hospital Partners and Novant Health have signaled their desire to build a 64-bed Fort Mill hospital, and Carolinas HealthCare System has also expressed interest.

Hospital beds used to be allocated on a county-by-county basis. In areas with several hospitals, however, problems arose when one facility wanted to grow, but the health department determined there were enough beds in the county.

The policy was changed in 2003 to determine need by hospital.

The battle brewing in York County, however, is prompting DHEC to rethink its policy because automatically awarding the proposed hospital in Fort Mill to Piedmont could effectively close the market to another hospital.

Grice said DHEC will consider other applications even though under the current policy the need belongs to Piedmont. Officials have said they expect legal action to be taken by the losers after a decision is made.

After the applications are filed with DHEC - the remaining companies said they plan to submit theirs on or just before the March 11 deadline - a decision is likely within a couple months.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.